On Tuesday Fear of Men launched their new album Loom with a gig at the Dome Studio Theatre. Loom is out this monday, but if that’s too long to wait, you can buy the limited edition coloured vinyl edition as a Record Store Day exclusive tomorrow. If even that’s too long, it’s currently streaming on Pitchfork.
The launch gig was the first of a new set of regular nights at the Dome called Spectrum, put on in collaboration with Resident Support on the night came from Grace Carter, Grasshopper and Abi Wade. Here’s our pics – as usual, click to view large:
This Saturday is Record Store Day – a day to celebrate independent record shops, and a day when a whole load of records get put out on special edition vinyl. This year also happens to be Resident Records 10th Birthday, so they’re laying on even more treats than normal. A host of local bands are putting out releases – Fear of Men are releasing a coloured vinyl edition of their album (which doesn’t get a full release until the following Monday), and Metronomy have a one sided 12” of Love Letters, as remixed by Soulwax. The full list of Brighton releases is below, with the full list of everything Resident will be stocking over on their website.
Anushka / Distorted Air EP 12″
Mark Chadwick / Red Sky 7″
Cuz / Tametebako LP
Natasha Khan + Jon Hopkins / Garden’s Heart 7″
Fear of Men / Loom LP
The Levellers / Carry Me 12″
Metronomy / Love Letters (Soulwax remix) 12″
Luke Sital Singh / Greatest Lovers 7″
The Wedding Present / EP4 Can 10″
On the 19th May AK/DK release their debut album Synths + Drums + Noise + Space. It’s already getting a fantastic reception in the press – both NME and The Line of Best Fit have given it 8/10 reviews. Anyone who’s been to one of their incredible live shows will know what to expect – semi-improvised pulsating analogue synth lines, BIG drums and a cheeky sense of humour, like Stereolab if they’d grown up smoking cigarettes round the back of the bike sheds instead of focussing on their French and Politics lessons. It’s not all big bleeps though – tracks like closer Seq and Ye Shall Find and Morning Dragpipe show a hitherto unseen ambient side to the group.
The album launch is taking place next Friday (18th) at the Green Door Store, with support from Hypnotized, and the band will be joining fellow Brightonians Fujiya & Miyagi on their tour in June where they play The Haunt on the 6th. A limited edition clear vinyl edition of the album will be available at the live dates. Until then, you can whet your appetite by listening to Maxwell’s Waves:
Here’s this week’s batch of new tunes that we’ve heard: First is Tigercub, who are showing their grungier side with their new single Blue Blood, which is out on May 5th on Raygun Records. There’s a launch party for the single at Bermuda Triangle on 24th April. Also coming out soon on Raygun Records is Beautiful Boy‘s debut single. It’s a double A side with a track called Home on one side, and the rousing guitar pop of Love Me More that we have here on the flip. It’s coming out on May 19th on limited 7″ and the band’s next gig in Brighton is on 18th April at the Clarendon Centre with Fickle Friends. Next up is Bunty‘s new single, Enemy. Last year’s multimedia Multimos project is being turned into an album, and Enemy is the first single to be released from it. We’ll give you more details on the album as we get them. Spit Shake Sisters latest offering Jesus Was a Homewrecker was actually posted up a couple of weeks ago, but for some reason we dropped the ball and have only just spotted it. How we missed this four minute garage wig out is beyond us, but better late than never.
Last week Curxes made a few announcements about some new and old material. On the new material front they have a new single due to land next month, with videos and remixes promised. They’ve also indicated that they have a whole album’s worth of material written and that they’ve also started work on more new songs.
Slightly more concrete was the news about their older material. On April 10th the band are releasing a 7 track mini-album featuring their early singles plus some unreleased demos from 2010-2011. Precurxor will be offered as a digital download or a limited edition cd via their bandcamp and preorders will be able to download two of the tracks from the mini-album immediately.
Here’s the pick of our favourite tracks we’ve been listening to this month, just in case you missed them first time around
1 – Bentcousin with LL & the D’s / You Make Me Feel So Young
OK, so maybe we’re a bit biased here because Bentcousin gave us our first exclusive track that we’ve posted on the blog, but nevertheless it’s still a great catchy tune
2 – Dog in the Snow / Factory
Dog in the Snow’s latest single is a more electronic affair than their earlier work, and their best yet in our opinion.
3 – The New Union / Now
The NME have just caught onto the New Union’s new single Now. We first posted about it back in February.
4 – IYES / Breathe
IYES ascendancy continues apace with their new single Breathe which ropes in production dues from MNEK.
5 – Phantom Runners / Chase the Feeling
Another Brighton band who’ve roped in a name producer are Phantom Runners, whose new single has the guiding hand of the Fun Lovin Criminals’ Huey Morgan.
6 – Them The Sky / Fall (Finjin remix)
The original of Fall was a more guitar based post rock affair, but in it’s remixed form is much more blissed out.
7 – A Lily / A House is not a Motel
Over the course of March, A Lily put out an EP of four cover versions called Augury. Their version of Love’s A House is not a Motel is our pick.
8 – Eagles for Hands / Appalachia (feat Sivu)
Eagles for Hands latest soundcloud upload is a collaboration with Sivu, which shows a completely different side to both artists work.
9 – Black Rooster Black Shag / Borderline
The new video from Black Rooster Black Shag is another teaser for the band’s debut album which gets released on 1st May, which we’ll be telling you more about very soon.
10 – Hypnotized / Hylia
Hylia is the track with the strongest Eastern flavour from Hypnotized’s new Telesto EP, marrying sitars with rolling beats.
Another batch of new Brighton music for you all, including three singles that are out today:
The first of today’s new singles is PLAY by Fickle Friends, the follow up to Swim – the first new track of 2014 that we posted. PLAY is another slice of fantastic sunshine pop. The band are launching the single with a gig at the Shacklewell arms on 9th April before they head on tour in April / May, playing a hometown gig as part of the Great Escape at the Green Door Store on 9th May.
Wasted by The Delta Bell is the new country tinged 7″ released today on Random Acts of Vinyl. Kate Gerrard’s band play at the Hope tomorrow night supporting Flooding Rivers, and you can buy the single now from the Random Acts of Vinyl website.
You probably wouldn’t guess that the ice-cool electro of Ode to a Massive Obsession was made by an ex-member of Kins, but Winston & Goldstein is the new project by Jacqueline who in a previous musical life was responsible for keyboards and guitars. The track is the first video from the forthcoming album In The Eyes of the Other, due later this year.
Dark Horses are back with Live on Hunger, the first track from their second album. Hail Lucid State has been produced by Death in Vegas mainman Richard Fearless (who also produced their debut Black Music), and the album will be out later this year on Last Gang Records.
Finally, we have the new single from Royal Blood, also released today. Little Monster is packed with riffis and is available on download or limited 7″.
Friday night Les Enfants Terribles was back at the Blind Tiger, so were we with our camera. We missed openers Lunar Maria, but had a great time seeing the other bands (click images to view large):
On 5th May, Fujiya & Miyagi release their fifth album Artificial Sweeteners on Yep Roc records.
The band haven’t been resting since 2011’s Ventriloquizzing – we’ve had a couple of solo projects (Omega Male and I Am Ampersand), a 37 minute long running track, and a cover of New Order’s Your Silent Face for a Mojo magazine CD – but now David Best, Steve Lewis and Matt Hainsby are back with an album that might please dance music fans more than head nodding krautrock addicts. That’s not to say that Artificial Sweeteners isn’t classic Fujiya & Miyagi – There’s no escaping David Best’s deadpan swagger, although now some of the motorik grooves are more synth based and propped up with pulsating drums.
The band play at The Haunt on 6th June before heading around the UK then Europe. Tickets are onsale now for £6.50 + booking fee from the usual outlets. You can pre-order Artificial Sweeteners digitally from iTunes, or physically from recordstore.co.uk. Two tracks – opener Flaws and the analogue acid electro number Tetrahydrofolic Acid – are streaming below.
Tracklisting:
1. Flaws
2. Acid to my Alkaline
3. Rayleigh Scattering
4. Artificial Sweeteners
5. Little Stabs at Happiness
6. Tetrahydrofolic Acid
7. Daggers
8. Vagaries of Fashion
9. A Sea Ringed with Visions
After a break for reasons we can’t quite fathom ourselves, here’s our pick of great gigs coming up this weekend.
On FridayLes Enfants Terribles, one of our favourite monthly nights, returns to the Blind Tiger. This month the fantastic Momotaro are headlining, with support from TheBeautiful Word, Poles Apart and Lunar Maria. Meanwhile, over at Sticky Mike’s, Demob Happy are curating this weekend’s Late Night Lingerie.
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On Saturday Night The Galleons are holding their album launch at the Brighthelm Centre. Not only do they have the 60 piece Hullabaloo Community Choir performing with them, but they’ve also had their own beer brewed especially for the night. We’ve also spotted that Dark Horses are making a return with the first local gig performing material from their upcoming second album. You can catch them at Sticky Mike’s supported by The Querelles and Riddles.
Brighton Music Blog 